


we've got a sign on the door and a wreath of orange blossom

by Raven (singlecrow)



Category: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-21
Updated: 2016-09-21
Packaged: 2018-08-16 12:54:08
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 556
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8103097
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/singlecrow/pseuds/Raven
Summary: Jadzia is singing. Miles is losing at the Alamo. Julian is on page sixty-four of three hundred and seventy-five of Starfleet’s annual Permanent Space Installation Pharmaceutical Inventory.





	

Springtime has come to Deep Space Nine. The Bajoran festival of growth and new life has just concluded and the Promenade is littered with red lilies. Teenagers in pairs are finding reasons to seclude themselves in disused airlocks. Jadzia is singing. Miles is losing at the Alamo. Julian is on page sixty-four of three hundred and seventy-five of Starfleet’s annual Permanent Space Installation Pharmaceutical Inventory.

He goes down to the lower level with a stylus behind his ear and the padd (page sixty-five; phenobarbital, lorazepam and other minimum medications for a basic healthcare system) sticking out of his pocket, and finds Garak sitting cross-legged on the floor of his shop, concentrating on something fluffy and yellow.

“A late-in-life second marriage for Commander Nakahari,” he says, without looking up. “What can I do for you, Doctor?”

“I won’t be able to make lunch,” Julian says, regretfully. The smell of coffee is drifting in from the tray vendor outside and Julian has been at this damn inventory since five o'clock this morning. “I’ve got to finish this.”

“Needless bureaucracy,” Garak says, still concentrating. Julian watches the movement of the needle through the cloth, in, out, in, out. Hypnotic. “Rule-following for the sake of it.”

“It’s important,” Julian insists, pacing idly, picking things up and putting them down. A swatch of some purple shimmering stuff: formal attire on Betazed. A ripped-out page from an Earth magazine, advertising a nice sharp suit for one’s bat mitzvah. Two empty raktajino cups. A small placard: _26 Hours’ Notice - No Rush Jobs_. “What if we got cut off from Starfleet for some reason? We’d need to know precisely what we had then.”

“I meant Starfleet as a whole,” Garak says, and spits out the needle. He ties off, begins on another hand-embroidered fleur-de-lis. “Breathless supplication before the meaningless strictures of others.”

Cross-legged; head dipped; _breathless supplication_. Julian suddenly wants to do something one oughtn’t to do in public. “You wouldn’t know anything about that, of course.”

“Mmm?” Garak gets up, finally, stretching out. For a second he’s something wholly alien, reptilian muscles beneath endothermic skin - then he turns the pile of fabric right-side-out and he’s just Garak holding a wedding dress. “Not to blow one’s own trumpet, but I think it’s rather nice.”

“It’s lovely,” Julian says sincerely. With all the fluff secreted in the lining, it’s as as elegant as a tulip. “And impressive, given the wedding’s in two hours. Nakahari ships out to the Neutral Zone on tonight’s last transport.”

“Is that so?” Garak murmurs, hunting down another reel of thread, beginning on another embroidered cluster. It looks like there will need to be another five at least before the design is symmetrical.

“I like the bunting in the replimat,” Julian says, “it’s the same shade of yellow” - and Garak’s eyes on him are entirely impassive.

“I tell you what,” Julian says, not saying anything about No Rush Jobs or the meaningless strictures of others, “however _you_ were going to make it up to _me_ for missing lunch, you can just go ahead and do that.”

Garak’s smile has a sharp edge to it, and the needle is still flashing hypnotic in his hands. Julian smiles back, and goes back to the Starfleet Annual Pharmaceutical Inventory, thinking of all the things one does, has, keeps around, to get under one’s skin.


End file.
